The Portland daily press., 1887-11-28

Or. DaIton's Fourth Saturday
Lecture.


.'Ten Greeian cities claim great Homer S dead,
bread"
This said the Doctor, shows how lit
| tie the Greeks knew Of their greatest poet
scarcely more than we do Of Shakespeare.
After all. we know Of Shakespeare what Is
most important to know, viz: that his
thoughts and words have contributed more
to the formation OF the thought and life Of
the English race than those Of any other
man. He has moulded our life. directed the
current of our thoughts and feelings, and
given them complication. To him more than
to any other writer, we owe certain sanity
Of mind. But II Shakespeare has largely
formed the English speaking people. who
formed him? God, and good old England.
God gave him his original genius. old Eng
land both developed it. and directed its use.
III he is the original cause Of many things
which are counted English, he was in his
lifetime equally an effect. product OF many
English influences. The. Elizabethan Age
owed much to him, and he much to 1t. The
keen air in which Bacon, Hooker and Raleigh
throve and grew so great. was no less favor
able to the growth Of Shakespeare's mind.
Without Chaucer, and Spenser, the Eliza
bethan Drama had been impossible. Shake
speare was the greatest OF them all, and yet,
without them, he would not have surpassed
them. They were the ladders on which he
climbed to his sublime heights, those un-
equalled heights which we rise to, In Mac
beth, Lear, Hamlet and Othello. These four
dramas not only surpass everything out OF
Shakespeare but everything else in Shake
speare. Different readers prefer some one
of these immortal creations, and think IL be-
yond the others. And we are all apt to think
that the best, which we have read last. Each
in turn possesses us, and we yield ourselves
willing captives to the mighty genius Of the
poet.
In Othello, we are borne along by a tide
whose sweep is irresistible. Its chief charac-
ters are 0thello, Desdemona, Iago and
Roderigo. The lesser ones are Brabanti0,
Cassie, Emilia and Blanca with the usual
messengers and attendants. The first act
opens In Venice with the discovery OF Othel-
los marriage to Desdemona, and the dlsclos-
ure of her fathers displeasnre. The charac-
ter and plot Of lago begin to unfold even
here, and are greatly advanced on the re-
moyal to Cyprus where all the circumstances
prove favorable to his designs, viz. to fool
Roderigo to the top of his bent. while he de-
directly 0thello himself.
How he succeeded In his hellish design Is
the great task the poet imposes on himself to
relate. lagos success was only too great, In
fact perfect. IL is in the prosecution Of his
several qualities and develop their true
characters. In one sense, everything Is
made TO turn on the purposes, acts and char
acter Of lago. One man, himself a moral
| wreck, Is allowed to work the ruin Of all
around him. Never before or since, has
| there been such display OF devilish inge-
nuity, or ingenious deviltry. The original
| and essential Satanic spirit Is seen In Iago as
nowhere else: There are, and always have
been, lesser demons, but only one Iago In all
| the world. He Is easily the prince Of human
devils, more detestable than MephistOpheles,
or Milton's, or Dante's Satan-all the more
so, that he is continually posing as Honest
Il is said that the Iago Of the theatre ap-
pears upon the stage, a sly, subtle Italian,
with dress and mien to correspond. But this
is not Shakespeare's Iago, who affects open
ness and honesty to bluntness. This Is his
succeeds In deceiving all with whom he Is
connected. He makes ROderigo his dupe
without effort, but to bewilder and betray
0thello required the deepest art. Othello Is
honest, open and unsuspieiOus. He demands
| proof, and thinks he has discovered them.
| He Is, however, but the fool Of his senses,
| and soon loses his head, though his heart Is
| aglow with warm affections. Cassie Is a
character common enough; one that becomes
mere child in the hands Of IagO. BESIDE
ting. She Is above lago, as heaven above
/ hell, and as an angel Is above demon. she
/ Is so pure and good as to think the tnings
/ with which he Is charged impossible. Her
| death inspires us with the deepest pity, and
/ yet she Is the only one Of them all whose
i place we would take.
What a tribute to virtueI What PROOF OF
| the triumph of the good, though they die.
| And even in death, Desdemona Is at the top
| as Iapo i az the bottom Of human posstbili-
lies fhose two. Yet we are all tending to
one or the other. on the ascending or de-
Sending scale, and II Is possible That we
NAV become as angelic as the one, or as dew
/ ilish as the other.
Several other points were made In the lee
ture, such as Roderigo regarded as a repre-
sentative Of the gilded youth" and "the
| cursed darlings" of our time, and the open
question. whether Othello can be said to have
| been jealous.